Buy it in ChatGPT: What Amazon Sellers Need to Know About the New AI Commerce War

How do you feel about the AI commerce revolution?

I need to optimize my listings for AI now

I'm concerned about losing traffic to ChatGPT

I want to understand how these AI systems work

I'm skeptical AI will change e-commerce that much

Introduction: The AI Commerce Battlefield Has Begun

Artificial intelligence is no longer just a buzzword in the tech world—it is rewriting the entire structure of e-commerce. With the launch of "Buy it in ChatGPT," OpenAI has officially entered the retail battlefield.

But this move is not happening in isolation. Three giants—Amazon, OpenAI, and Google—are now competing to control the first step of every shopping journey. For Amazon sellers, this war will decide where future traffic flows, who owns the customer relationship, and whether independent brands can still thrive in an AI-driven economy.

1. The Three Power Blocs of AI Commerce

The global e-commerce landscape has split into three powerful AI alliances:

Power Bloc	Core Product	Core Logic	Strategic Goal
Amazon	COSMO Algorithm + Rufus Shopping Assistant	Trained on internal behavioral and transaction data	Preserve its closed-loop ecosystem and keep shoppers inside Amazon
OpenAI	ChatGPT + "Buy it in ChatGPT"	Large language model + external shopping APIs	Replace search and shopping comparison engines, becoming the universal AI buying gateway
Google	Gemini + Google Shopping + AI Overview	Fusion of search, structured data, and generative AI	Protect its dominance in search and shopping ads through AI-driven answers

All three are fighting for the same thing: to own the user's first shopping question—the digital moment when intent turns into action.

2. Amazon's COSMO and Rufus: The Most Advanced Commerce AI

Many sellers still talk about the old "A9 algorithm," but that era is over. Amazon now operates on a far more advanced system: COSMO, short for Contextual Shopping Model.

COSMO is a multi-objective machine-learning framework trained on billions of user interactions. It does not simply rank results by keywords or clicks. It simultaneously optimizes for multiple goals—conversion, profitability, satisfaction, and long-term customer value.

Built on top of COSMO is Rufus, Amazon's conversational AI shopping assistant. Rufus understands natural language questions like "What is the best desk chair for back pain under $200?" and delivers product answers directly, drawing from COSMO's knowledge graph and marketplace data.

In short, Amazon's search experience has evolved from "Find products" to "Talk to an AI that understands what you want."

3. ChatGPT's New Move: Buy it in ChatGPT

OpenAI's "Buy it in ChatGPT" represents a major leap in how consumers interact with e-commerce. Instead of answering questions and sending users to a website, ChatGPT now completes the shopping loop inside the chat.

Here's how it works:

The user describes a product need.
ChatGPT recommends several options, displayed as product cards.
The user can compare, select, and purchase—all without leaving the chat window.

By integrating platforms like Shopify and Etsy, ChatGPT is trying to become the universal shopping assistant of the internet.

However, this new model also introduces a dangerous shift:

Users no longer visit brand websites or product pages.
Independent sellers lose direct contact with buyers.
Every brand becomes a small tile in an AI-controlled catalog.

ChatGPT does not distribute traffic; it absorbs it. That is why many see it as a traffic black hole, not a discovery engine.

4. Google's Counter-Attack: Gemini and AI Shopping Overview

After years of dominating search, Google is now facing pressure from OpenAI. In response, Google launched Gemini and introduced AI Overview (also called AI Mode)—its own version of an AI-powered search result.

When users search for a product, Gemini generates a summary answer at the top of the results page, blending text, images, and shopping suggestions from Google Shopping.

Google's strengths:

The world's largest structured index of products and web data.
Tight integration with Merchant Center, Shopping Ads, and Performance Max campaigns.
A semi-open ecosystem that still rewards traditional SEO.

In effect, Google is merging search, AI, and shopping into a single interface—trying to prevent users from defecting to ChatGPT.

5. Three AI Shopping Models Compared

Aspect	Amazon Rufus (COSMO)	ChatGPT (Buy it in ChatGPT)	Google Gemini (AI Mode)
Data Source	Internal sales, reviews, user behavior	LLM + external commerce APIs	Search index + Merchant Center
Display Format	Conversational recommendations inside Amazon	Chat-based product cards	AI summary blended with shopping results
Seller Control	High (through Listing optimization)	None (closed recommendation logic)	Partial (SEO + feed optimization)
Brand Visibility	High within Amazon	Low (card format)	Moderate (depends on ranking)
Business Model	Closed marketplace + ads	AI referral integration	Ads + search hybrid

The key takeaway:

Amazon's system can still be optimized.
ChatGPT's system cannot be influenced.
Google's system remains semi-open but increasingly automated.

6. The Threats Facing Amazon Sellers

1. Fragmented and Unpredictable Traffic

Consumers can now start their shopping journey in three different places—ChatGPT, Google, or Amazon Rufus. As a result, Amazon no longer fully controls the discovery phase, which has always been its core advantage.

2. The Death of Brand Storytelling

ChatGPT and Gemini both present "flat" product cards that erase the emotional and narrative side of a brand. Your brand story, lifestyle imagery, and content no longer reach the buyer.

3. Hyper-Transparency in Pricing

AI systems compare prices across platforms instantly. Users see the cheapest option first. This will trigger aggressive price wars and margin compression for Amazon sellers.

7. The Hidden Advantage: Amazon's AI Is Still Seller-Friendly

While OpenAI and Google build closed or semi-closed ecosystems, Amazon's AI remains semi-transparent and seller-optimizable. Sellers can still influence COSMO and Rufus through:

Keyword structure
Content clarity
Semantic richness
Customer review quality
Conversion and dwell time signals

That makes Amazon the most actionable platform in the new AI commerce war—if you understand how to speak its algorithm's language.

8. From SEO to AEO: The Next Era of Optimization

Traditional SEO is about keywords. In the AI era, what matters is AEO—AI Engine Optimization.

To succeed under COSMO and Rufus, sellers must:

Use structured, semantic language
- Describe purpose, scenario, function, and user outcome clearly.
Write for human-AI understanding
- Use natural, conversational sentences that Rufus can easily interpret.
Create listings that answer questions
- Shift from static product info to solutions-driven content.
Feed the COSMO knowledge graph
- Maintain consistency across Amazon listings, brand sites, and media coverage so the AI "knows" your brand.

This is how you make your products visible to AI engines instead of being lost in their noise.

9. Strategic Takeaways for Amazon Sellers

Don't fear ChatGPT—understand its limits. It lacks transactional data and cannot match Amazon's conversion insights.
Use Google strategically. Optimize your brand for AI Mode visibility but treat it as a discovery layer, not your main sales funnel.
Invest in COSMO-based optimization. Amazon remains the only ecosystem where sellers can still shape their own visibility.

10. The Solution: amazonseo.ai — Built for the COSMO and Rufus Era

The next wave of Amazon success will belong to sellers who understand how AI evaluates listings. That is exactly why we built amazonseo.ai.

What amazonseo.ai Does

Uses advanced modeling based on COSMO and Rufus ranking signals.
Automatically generates Rufus-optimized listings written in natural, semantic language that AI understands.
Structures keywords, bullet points, and descriptions according to multi-objective learning priorities (CTR, conversion, satisfaction).
Analyzes your competitors' listings to reveal which semantic cues COSMO is rewarding.

The Result

Improved organic ranking in Amazon search.
Higher visibility in Rufus AI recommendations.
Increased traffic, conversions, and long-term brand growth.

In a world where ChatGPT and Gemini are turning commerce into a closed AI experience, amazonseo.ai helps sellers take back control of visibility inside Amazon's ecosystem—the one platform where optimization still matters.

11. The AI Commerce War: Adapt or Disappear

"Buy it in ChatGPT" is not a passing trend. It is the start of a long-term transformation in how products are discovered and sold. OpenAI wants to rebuild the shopping entry point. Google wants to defend its search empire. Amazon wants to evolve its algorithm faster than both.

For sellers, this is not a spectator sport—it is survival. You can either adapt your listings for AI-driven discovery or be buried in the data void.

The choice is simple:

Either get optimized for COSMO and Rufus.
Or let ChatGPT and Gemini decide your future.

With amazonseo.ai, you can choose the first path—the one where AI works for you, not against you.